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Thousands flee eastern Freetown

    ABIDJAN

    Thousands of residents are fleeing fighting in Freetown’s east end for the safer western part of the city, an official of the UN Humanitarian Coordination Unit (UN-HACU) told IRIN today. UNICEF put the number at 20,000.

    The official, in regular contact with aid officials still in the Sierra Leonean capital, also said a large number of internally displaced people (IDPs) were jammed into the city’s soccer stadium. She said the humanitarian community was trying to provide shelter, water and sanitation to the city’s estimated one million IDPs and resident population. Humanitarian agencies and NGOs which have warehouses in the city were also trying to assess the state of these facilities, especially in the east end, which was recently subject to heavy damage in the fighting between the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels and ECOMOG.

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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